James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Illustrator Andrew Loomis developed a practical scheme for organizing the tonal values of a picture.

In his book Creative Illustration he presents squares of four different tones: white, light gray, dark gray, and black.

If you let one of those tones dominate, you can arrange them four different ways: 1. Grays and black on white, 2. Black, white, and dark gray on light gray, 3. Black, white, light gray on dark gray, and 4. Grays and white on black.

Nearly any sort of picture can fit one of these plans. Loomis proves it by creating a set of thumbnail sketches where the tones are carefully grouped and simplified.

For example, this sketch of kids and sleds on snow fits the second plan. After doing the pencil thumbnail, he creates a small sketch in oil, still keeping to those four tones. "Design is rarely a complete accident," Loomis says. "It has to be balanced, simplified, or stripped to essentials, and usually tried in several ways to arrive at the best one."

These sketches of a mother and a baby near a window follows the third plan. "So many of us attach so much to the material and subject, so little to the design and arrangement of it."

14 comments:

This is going to be very useful to me. It's taking awhile for it to sink in, but I'm getting it.

I think that, for some reason, the concept of the squares overlapping confused me initially. I find it a little easier to think in terms of relative surface area and not think about the overlapping...but maybe that's just me.

Tom, you're right -- he says in the text that one of the tones should predominate, but it doesn't necessarily need to be in the background. In some design classes they have the students cut big shapes out of toned paper to better approximate the basic design.

Also, I think four tones is almost too many -- I find it helps to boil the design down to three or even two main tonal areas.

I have to say that I've always had trouble understanding this concept out as well. "I find it a little easier to think in terms of relative surface area and not think about the overlapping...but maybe that's just me."I agree with you Tom. Maybe instead of square shapes it would be easier to have abstract toned shapes similar to the painting you want to do??? James, perhaps in a future post(s) you could teach us more in this particular concept and its applications? This is something I would like to understand better. And perhaps you could give us your thoughts on a simplified version as well?

In school we were taught five tones, but that four or three were better. I tend to agree with James, as the simpler the main statement the more noticeable and profound, all things considered. In the media rich world of today, this could not be more appropriate advice to take in my own humble opinion.

I have wondered for sometime now what your thoughts on Loomis were. I was recently able to acquire Figure Drawing for all it's Worth. I know his books are very highly recommended by another artist I admire.

Ezra, good point. There are many pictures that can't be placed in one of these categories. Loomis's point is to group the tones so that the picture doesn't become too busy.

Keith, I have a huge admiration for Loomis's art instruction books, and I recommend them. I used to read them (and still read them) over and over again, and I admire the way he addresses issues of painting and color, especially.

Pattern, Thanks. I wasn't aware of that Jack Hamm book. I just have the ones on animal and figure drawing.

Artillory, you said it. Simplicity of tone is one of the hardest things to accomplish in composition, but it makes a huge difference.

Great post, James. I'd recently read a great article about tonal organization which touches on this very topic: http://underpaintings.blogspot.com/2010/12/gray-matter.html

The article also has a priceless quote by Howard Pyle, who apparently subscribed to an even more stringent formula: "If you can make a picture with two values only, you have a strong and powerful picture. If you use three values, it is still good, but if you use four or more, throw it away."

And of course, it's "recursive": sub-groups of overlapping tones within this arrangement can follow the same scheme. So for example, a light, black and white values on the dark background could be arranged as "light and black on white", "white and light on black", "white and black on light".

And it takes in account that you can juxtapose similar values or use contrasting values to separate them.

And of course, it's "recursive": sub-groups of overlapping tones within this arrangement can follow the same scheme. So for example, a light, black and white values on the dark background could be arranged as "light and black on white", "white and light on black", "white and black on light".

And it takes in account that you can juxtapose similar values or use contrasting values to separate them.